"Different woods received testing onboard the International Space Station in 2022, and thanks to that work, the final frontier is now home to LignoSat. This small satellite is made from magnolia wood."
"One major advantage of a wooden satellite is that it is environmentally friendly. When satellites finish their missions, they linger around in Earth's orbit as space debris."
"Conventional satellites are made of metal. They produce aluminum oxide particles when a satellite or its pieces re-enter the atmosphere, but wood would burn up and produce less pollution."
"Over the next six months, researchers will glean new information about LignoSat's performance in space, including how the wood expands and contracts, and how its internal temperature changes."
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